Feeling Inspired!

This week I went to the Ladies Workshop at the church and left feeling so energized and inspired! I would like to do more with this group and am jazzed to hear your ideas.

I went running this morning at 7:30am even though when that alarm went off, I really wanted to hit "snooze". During and after the run I felt incredible and was so glad I ignored my impulse to sleep in and miss the run.

I think its amazing that each time I push myself out of that comfort zone and do what God has planned for me, I always end up reaping benefits and blessings.

Another thing I did today was prep some healthy foods for the week ahead and posted the following on the Argyle Health & Wellness Facebook page:

I got some kale, chopped it & tossed in some white wine vinegar, olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, salt & pepper and chopped pecans. I put it all in a large ziploc bag in the fridge. The salad gets better each day that the ingredients fuse together in there. You can do this! Don't measure anything.. just eyeball everything. Put in what you like and leave what you don't like. Kale salad is delicious, packed with vitamins and antioxidants and goes well with any meal.s and goes well with any meal. I also made some oatmeal pancakes: Few packets of low sugar maple & brown sugar oatmeal, handful of chocolate chips, chopped walnuts, a mashed banana, cracked in one or two eggs and mixed all of it up. Then you drop spoonfuls of the mixture onto a hot frying pan and fry on both sides just like pancakes. These can be kept in the freezer & one defrosted each am for breakfast: easy to eat "on the go" as they are stiffer than regular pancakes and can be held in one hand as you drive to work. You can drizzle in some raw maple syrup for some extra sweetness. I also made energy balls: these work great for an afternoon snack: I mix together some oatmeal, matcha green tea powder, chocolate chips, maple syrup and chunky peanut butter (the natural kind with very little processing). These are then fashioned into balls and kept (you guessed it) in a ziploc in the freezer. I put these in my lunchbox or grab out of the freezer for an afternoon snack. I was able to do all of this in less than an hour. this sets me up for success for a week of healthy energy!

I hope I can encourage you today. Jesus came so that we could have life to the fullest and this means full of energy from a restful night's sleep, healthy foods and other healthy behaviors.

Looking forward to seeing what God is going to do for all of us through this group!

Tuesday Walk

I won't be able to make it to the walk this evening Tues 3/24: But I plan on being there next Tuesday 3/31. See you all then!

What is in Store This Year for the Health and Wellness Connection?

     I am currently thinking and praying about what direction to take this group in. I have lots of ideas, but I really want input from all of you in the group! One great idea some had was to have some exercise classes at the church. I am still thinking about how I can implement this best.

    I would also like to organize some group discussion about some different health issues/struggles we all may be going through, such as cancer, high blood pressure, depression.. etc. We could meet in the Dorcas room at the church for group discussion one month and I could publicize in the bulletin and during the church announcements.

     Another idea I've had is to meet at my house for a workshop where we prepare a week of healthy meals ahead: and place them in our freezer. I think this would be the first idea to tackle as the Daniel Plan is still fresh on our minds.

    I would of course love to bring some speakers to the church to talk with us about various health topics, but would really like to make sure I can draw a group of regular attenders first before I invite someone to come speak.

       I am looking for a fun local 5K we could walk in. A bonus would be if the 5K was for awareness of a certain disease/health problem.

      A great guy named Mike came up to me last week after one of the services. He's interested in how we can help those that are in the hospital. I'm thinking and praying about that also.

     What are some ideas that you may have about what you would like to see/ hear about? Email me, Facebook me or come talk to me after church, I'd love to hear from you!

The Daniel Plan: The last 2 chapters

     So, I've come to the end of the book, but for me: its still the beginning of a life-long journey. This week, I went to the doctor for my annual check-up. My cholesterol was great off my meds, I was doing great overall and I'D DROPPED 10 POUNDS! To be fair, the last time I was weighed was over a year ago, so its possible I'd lost some of that weight before I ever went on the Daniel Plan, but still, these days I am looking and feeling noticeably different. Last night, as I stood in my driveway chatting with some neighbors while we watched fireworks, I saw a neighbor I haven't seen in many months.  She couldn't stop gushing about how I'd lost some weight and looked great.  Trust me, her compliments will keep me motivated energized for weeks and months to come. As an aside, here's something everyone should do if you aren't already: if you ever notice that someone looks as if they've lost some weight (no matter how slight), make sure to let them know! It really is very encouraging.  Now I wish I'd taken some "before" and "after" pictures.

      To be perfectly honest, I've been so busy the past few months that I really haven't been exercising all that much.  If I had to guess, I'd say that I'm probably only working out 2-3 times a week for 20-30 minutes and I'm not working out anywhere near as hard as I have in the past.  Most of the change I've seen has actually been from the change in my diet and in my mind set/attitude.

     The final two chapters of the book are just some practical tips: workout plans, recipes, grocery lists and the like. To be honest, I haven't been strictly following those plans: and I don't really plan to.  I'd like to keep going with what I'm doing now, which is keeping up my exercise, incorporating one or two new healthy recipes/foods gradually each week, and trying to stick with whole foods as much as I can. I'm happy with my own workout routine: a mix of running, interval training and aerobics, with some waking and biking thrown in. This sort of lifestyle change is a marathon, not a sprint, and I find that like most people: I'm more likely to stick with something if I incorporate gradual change giving myself leeway for the occasional treat.

      But the recipes and workout tips are great resources: a lot of the recipes look really interesting and I definitely plan on trying many of them, hopefully I'll get the chance to post pictures and my own reviews on the Facebook page for the group.  

     I just want to take this chance to say that I'm so grateful to this group, for being the catalyst that brought the Daniel Plan into my life.  It has been a blessing to me and of course to millions of others.  I've been recommending it to family and to my patients, too.   Thanks for following along and for reading the blog. If you have your own stories, recipes and experiences, please feel free to post here or on the Facebook page.
See you all at the weekly walk!

Chapter 8 Living the Lifestyle

I can't begin to tell how much I now believe in the Daniel Lifestyle! When I started, I was a bit of a skeptic, but now I'm sold.  As I type this, I'm eating an amazing bowl of turkey chili that was a cinch to throw together, and includes fresh veggies from the Fresh Fare Farm Delivery service I signed up for. Last week I had my cholesterol checked. After 10 weeks or so on the Daniel Plan and off my cholesterol medicine, my cholesterol is great. I've dropped a few pounds, and I feel really good.

I love the story from the beginning of this chapter about Dee, the director of the Daniel Plan. Just thinking about the losses and challenges in her life: I can't begin to imagine going through what she went through. If she can overcome what she did by reaching out to a small group and following the principles of the Daniel Plan, how much could it help the rest of us? I like how this chapter points out that sharing our pain, stress and grief with others is a first step on the path to healing.  I think we are all tempted to put on a cheery mask and hide our personal struggles, but people often appreciate the chance to lend a helping hand or some kind words: because we've all struggled at one point in our lives, and ...

We are only as sick as our secrets.

    More and more evidence is gathering in the scientific community for what most of us intuitively know: our physical health is tightly connected to our spiritual, emotional and mental health. If we want to be healthy physically, a great amount of power to do that lies  in our own hands: but we have to foster a healthy mind-set and healthy relationships for that to happen.

   Another great part of the chapter is the story of Alonso, a 400 pound man that completely changed his life: and found energy, fuel for his spiritual walk and a whole new way of thinking about God:

If God could get me healthier than I have ever been physically, something I never thought was possible, what else can He do?

       In this chapter, the author points out that if we focus on the good we are inviting and bringing into our lives with the Daniel plan (improved energy, better health, renewed spiritual and mental focus) and not on what we are leaving out or can't have, then our focus will start to shift. We will start thinking of our daily time with God, and our daily exercise and food preparation as opportunities to care for ourselves and not chores to get done.  I have definitely noticed that shift in my own perspective.  Last night I was up late and started feeling hungry for a snack.  Before this journey began, I might have craved ice cream or chips.  Last night, 8 or 10 weeks into this new life change, I found myself truly craving something nutritious. I ended up having a handful of mixed nuts and a banana, and I felt great! And, while I won't say that I'm brimming with excitement at the thought of doing a workout, I see it more as a part of my day (not a chore) and I do really look forward to how good I know I will feel after I'm done.

I like the idea of the exercise in the chapter that encourages us to make a list of things that bring us energy: time with friends, certain fun exercise activities (like biking or hiking), certain foods, and certain healthy relationships, and making a list of what drains our energy: unhealthy habits or relationships, worry or negativity etc. In the exercise we resolve to take away one thing that drains our energy and add one thing that brings us energy.  I think this is easier said than done, but definitely a great way to look at things.

I know that worry and negativity seem to weigh me down and suck the energy out of me, and I find a hard time letting go of them.  I think it boils down to the issue of trusting God, one of my biggest spiritual struggles. So while I work on everything else in the Daniel Plan, I'm going to keep working on trusting God.  I certainly encourage all of you to think of what weighs you down and try your best to remove it from your lives. I can't wait to see what other good things will be coming into my life and what things I'll be letting go of in the weeks ahead...

Friendship

     Friendship is the "special sauce" that makes the Daniel Plan work! That is the main point of this chapter, and the point can't be overstated. I think most will agree: in today's fast-paced world where more and more of our work and social lives are centered around electronic media, I think we are often becoming isolated. Finding time to get together with friends seems to be something that gets harder and harder as I get older.  

       Overcoming isolation is a challenge but it is not impossible. In the book, Pastor Rick offers a radical suggestion: approach somebody at school or work and ask them to exercise with you! Outside your comfort zone? Probably. Welcome to your new comfort zone! If you really want to get healthy and take off pounds, doing it with others is the way to go. 

      I love the story in the beginning of the chapter about Huntington, West Virginia: the "Fattest City in America" according to the CDC.  As the author explains, a pastor in a large church sought to change this statistic: and he did it! He did it through working with the community, one person at a time, and then reaching out to others. 

    Being a health care provider, I also loved the story about a doctor changing the health of communities in extreme poverty through getting people to come together in groups and help one another become healthier. We can each do that: reach out to others in our own communities and work together on principles from the Daniel Plan!

    How about the part about health and illness both being contagious?  Who you hang out with determines your health? Wow, what an eye-opener! It really does mean that if we follow a healthy lifestyle, we are likely to influence those around us to do the same. How awesome is that?  Love and intimacy are powerful medicines: more powerful for reversing disease than the most sophisticated drug. So let's all take the time to follow this prescription: 

Find more love, friendship and intimacy in your life!

    Another point not to be missed: Love is God's greatest commandment. All throughout the Bible, we are encouraged to love and help one another. There is probably no greater act of love we can give for ourselves, our God and each other than to help ourselves and others around us get healthy. 

I am so encouraged by this!

So I would like to reach out to everyone reading here: I want to help you be more healthy in your life. How can I do that? I'd love to have you join us on our weekly walks Sunday evening. Is there another night someone would like me to meet with them to walk? A class you'd like me to come with you to? I will be sharing some more recipes and exercise tips over the next few weeks. I have signed up for Local Fare North: a delivery service that brings a bag of locally grown fresh fruits and veggies each week to my door. I will be writing about this experience. I like the story in the chapter about the women who met regularly to fix healthy foods together and bring them home to their families. I'd be happy to try this out if anyone is interested. 

Let me know! See you all Sunday....

Focus

This chapter (like all of the chapters so far) is packed with information. It's really good, though and my mind is spinning with ways I can apply what I am reading.  This chapter is all about the brain. The brain really is miraculous and fascinating. Scientists are still constantly leaning new things about the human brain. A main point from this chapter:

When we are healthy and making good decisions, our brain is healthy. 

And the converse is also true:

When our brain is not healthy, we are not healthy and we make bad decisions.

I found it shocking (just like the author did) that studies show that as a person's weight goes up, the size of their brain goes down. The brain literally gets sicker and smaller.  It's not just extra pounds that can cause the brain to shrink either: high blood pressure, high blood sugar, untreated depression, lack of sleep: all of these things can impair our brain function and cause our brain to shrink.

I really like the part of the chapter that talks about chronic stress. A little stress can be a positive thing: showing us where we need to grow and what needs to change.  But living with chronic stress day in and day out takes a terrible toll on our health. Prayer and meditation are great ways to deal with chronic stress and certainly I need to work more prayer and meditation into my life!

My absolute favorite part of the chapter: the part that encourages us to laugh more! I think sometimes we take ourselves so seriously! "A cheerful heart is good medicine" (Proverbs 17:22) was quoted in the chapter and I absolutely love it.  I'm sure I've run across this verse before, but reading it in the context of this chapter: it just spoke to me.  God cares about joy! He meant for us to enjoy our lives! Really! Sometimes I take myself so seriously, and when I think about God, I'm thinking about what tangible goals he wants me to accomplish in my life, and how best I can optimize my time serving him. Really what I'm thinking about is how I'm "measuring up" each and every day, and He's not measuring!  I bet what He'd really like me to do is take time to find joy each day in the blessings He's given me.  I'd also be willing to bet that if more of us could mindfully cultivate a "cheerful heart" and a positive attitude, finding more joy in our lives, it would do so much more for our health than even the best medicine money could buy!

I like that Pastor Rick is encouraging us to challenge our erroneous, negative thoughts.  What are some of yours? For me, I think I have a lot of thought patterns driven by guilt. I was raised Catholic (no offense to anyone else raised Catholic) but in my experience growing up, guilt was used as a big motivator to change my behavior. So even in my adult life, I find that if I take time to exercise, I feel guilty about not getting something else done, or not spending that time with my kids. If I want to cook a dish full of veggies for dinner, I feel guilty because I know that my husband doesn't like a lot of the vegetables that I like.  Instead of taking a few minutes at work to have a healthy snack, I feel guilty that I'm not seeing my patients faster, so I skip eating and drinking water and end up with a headache, starving and end up scarfing down 3 doughnuts that someone brought into the break room.  I think a good way to challenge these thought patterns may be to ignore the guilt and see the truth:

When I take time to exercise, I end up feeling better, so I am a better Mom to my kids. Also, I'm modeling a healthy behavior for them, which is just what a good parent should do.

Often I do mix veggies into my dishes (way more often lately) and if my husband doesn't like that particular vegetable, he can pick it out of the dish: much like he did with the broccoli in the beef and broccoli I cooked tonight.  Exposing him to different veggies is probably better in the long run. There are veggies I've gotten him to try that he never touched before he met me.

Taking time to eat a handful of walnuts or a half cup of yogurt and some water in between patients means that my brain will work much better for the patients that I see. I doubt anyone will seriously mind waiting the 2 or 3 minutes this will actually take.

I very much agree with the entire section on gratitude and I know what a great impact gratitude can have on someone's happiness and health. My mother actually has taught me a lot about what a miraculous impact gratitude can have on life and health, and she encourages me to share her story.  My mom is an alcoholic, and for years she struggled with her addiction. There was a time that everyone in her life (her included) thought she was beyond help. But God lined up a series of events in her life that landed her in Alcoholics Anonymous, and step by step, friends and sponsors in the program taught her to focus each and every morning on gratitude. She learned that what often drove her to drink were a series of negative thoughts. I think negative thoughts are often what drives us to make poor food choices too: (much like my guilt about moving quickly through my patients eventually leads to a binge on doughnuts.)  She learned a technique to stop those negative thoughts as soon as she starts to think them. When she finds herself at the mercy of a string of negative thoughts, she stops and starts listing each thing she is grateful for, one by one. My mom is a walking miracle: I have seen her make a 180 degree change in her life over the past six years she has been sober, and I know that learning to cultivate an attitude of gratitude is a big part of that change.  I also think that if gratitude can have such a big hand in conquering alcohol addiction, it can certainly help out with stopping other unhealthy behaviors.

I also really like that the chapter encourages us to learn from "failure".  Just about any path to success looks a lot like that zig-zag diagram in the chapter: it is a steady upward trend, but along the way, there are little down-slopes, as we have little failures, learn from them and keep doing better. So many times in my teens and early 20s, I would decide I was going on a "diet" and the first time I broke down and ate a fast food meal or some ice cream, I gave up altogether. I'm sure many of us do that. But Pastor Rick reminds us that the path to healthy living is life-long and following the Daniel Plan is like following the GPS in your car. You get off track, and you just take the next U-turn as soon as you can and get right back on track. You WILL still reach your destination this way!

I love the practical tips at the end of the chapter to keep your brain healthy: like practicing self-control daily, getting 8 hours of sleep (guys, this is really important! Make it happen!) and getting omega 3 fatty acids each day.  Each day, we need to look at our goals and our list of things we are grateful for. Remember, life is 90% perspective and perception. If we chose to dwell on the positive, positive things will happen.

I was really encouraged by this whole chapter. I think it is really vital. When people think about losing weight or getting healthy, nobody really thinks about stopping to change their attitude or their mind-set, or writing down goals, or negative thought patterns. I think I'll end up coming back to this chapter and reading it over a few more times as I continue to implement the Daniel Plan.